Manufacturer vs manufacturer

Cliffs:
Just jump to the last paragraph if you don't want to read the story behind my question.

Manufacturer comparisons are hard to come by as far as tires go. I've been googling for the past day and found very little information about who makes a better tire for the respective class I'm looking in.

Anyway, my father is looking for new tires for his 02 Maxima and to avoid spending 800 dollars on 4 tires, he's considering looking online. Nissian originally put 215/55/17 size tires on the car, a hard to find size. Only tires I could find online are the Goodyears and they are very expensive. I upped the thread width to 235 and decreased the aspect ratio somewhat and found numerous tires that would fit. My problem is that I'm not aware of the manufactures reputations.

How would companies like Falken, Kumho, Yokohama, Dunlop, Contenential, and Perelli stack up against a company like Goodyear or Mechillin in the performance to ultra high performance all-season and "summer wet/dry only" tyre categories? I see Falkens, Kumhos, etc in the of the same size and category as a goodyear and cost 100+ US dollars less. What's the deal?

Goodyears are just plain overpriced, they know that alot of people think that its a "quality" tire and a name they know so they'll pop the extra jack for it. In my opinion though, Pirelli makes much better Ultra high performance tires than them. if he wants a summer only tire, I'd advise the Kumho Ecsta Supra 712 (if they make it in the right size) and if he wants an year round tire I'd advise the Yokohama Avid H4S (which I found in 225/55/17).

Michelin makes some good tires, but those good tires are VERY expensive, they're lower priced tires are geared towards long life and not performance and I find their compounds far too hard to enjoy driving on.

Thank you very much.

If anyone else knows any information that would help answer, even if it is redundant, please add to the thread, thanks.

Anyone know about Falkens?

if u have dough get Bridgestone potenza RE950's... pirelli's are also very good but IMO re950's are best all round ultra high performance.....

The problem is that all tire companies make a wide range of tire types. Asking how one brand stack ups against another is like saying Audi makes a lousy car based on the Audi Fox model. Your best bet would be to check out our testing results to see how they stack up side-by-side

http://www.tirerack.com/a.jsp?a=DY6&url=/tires/tests/testSearch.jsp

Thank guys, I will look for reviews both at tirerack and in other places.